The Grand Universe

Monday, October 6, 2014

I don't whether many of you have heard of the game Maelstrom. It's a wonderful gem of British roleplaying from the eighties, but has now been republished by Arion Games. Some might groan at the reprint of a thirty or so year old roleplaying game, but I must say that this is a reason for celebration, not tears.

Maelstrom, or so I read somewhere or other, was even an influence on the Warhammer roleplaying game, and it shows. The game plays like some wonderful Warhammer Light, but more in the spirit of OD&D than anything else. Skills? Well, each class basically says "well, you're good at this and this and this", with the exception of a few special abilities for mercenaries, wizards, and priests, etc.

Now, I'll be the first to admit, this game does have some flaws and lacks some information. For example, it has numerous different types of swords listed with both their price and their damage. Yet it fails to say what swords they are; the period it is set in was rife with guns, yet no mention is ever made of them. The Maelstrom Companion does fix this up, not that I own it, but so I have been informed. Despite these little flaws here and there, this is nothing one cannot fix with some fairly logical rulings, or maybe even a dip into wfrp, if you're already so inclined to that game.

In short, this is definitely one of my favourite games, right up there with Dungeons & Dragons, Tunnels & Trolls, and Traveller. After all, what other game ends a quick fight with a zombie biting off a character's finger, while the wizard attempts to crush the skull of another villain?

Much has been said elsewhere, and more times than I can count, about the end game of Dungeons & Dragons. Yet, not much is said of how the characters are to be, well... still characters even as they run around destroying countless kingdoms with their hordes of level 0 pawns, minions, or whatever you want to call them.

This seems a bit bizarre, and I should probably elaborate; after all, no one likes a writer who keeps the reader in the dark through lack of explanation. As part of my uni work, I've been rereading The Epic of Gilgamesh. If you don't know it, essentially an Assyrian poem about a king who kills some demons, loses his best friend, and then attempts to achieve immortality. All fairy standard fare for an ancient heroic poem. Yet here is something which seems to stand out when you think of Gilgamesh in the roleplaying paradigm (if I may be excused for being a hip person, but I can't seem to find any other word): Gilgamesh isn't just a character who was a mighty warrior or what-have-you when he was young, who then became king and retired to a life of city-burning with hordes of soldiers. Rather, with the epic, this is where Gilgamesh's story begins.

The poem opens with the people of Uruk (the city over which Gilgamesh rules) lamenting to the gods, because Gilgamesh spends his time being a Bad King, picking fights with the men and sleeping with all the women: rather standard behaviour for any adventurer, I'm sure we'll all agree. Isn't this exactly the kingdom of a player character? A mighty warrior, for sure, and one who has probably had much success and performed many great and heroic deeds in past years, which is why he is now king. But just because one is a hero does not mean one is a Good King. And so the gods create a man to be his rival, to distract him from oppressing the poor people of Uruk, and the pair become firm friends and decide to kill a mighty demon, as any normal person does when confronted with the thoughts of their meagre mortality.

From here, the epic really gets going: they slay the demon, Humbaba, and so Ishtar (goddess of love, sex, and war. They are vaguely related in the ancient Mesopotamian mind) attempts to seduce Gilgamesh, who spurns her (again, what player wouldn't spurn a goddess for a laugh, or at the very least attempt to manipulate her into giving them stuff?), and so she summons down the Bull of Heaven (i.e. the star constellation), which Gilgamesh and his friend kill. The gods being rather unfair, they decide this was a Bad Thing, and so they kill Enkidu, Gilgamesh's friend. Awkward.

Gilgamesh, being rather upset when confronted with the fact that all of his mighty deeds will simply end in his being a rotting corpse, runs away from the city to try and find immortality, and almost gets it, but not quite. If you really want to know all the details, go and read it for yourself; if a German poet can appreciate it, so can anyone!

This is what got me thinking. Too much emphasis is placed on how the players get to be kings in the grand end game, and then from there on how the players run around feeling rather awkward, because it seems as there is not too much to do when you're a level twenty something with +10 vorpal blade of absolute death, who also happens to be ruler over the Empire of Generic Yet Foreboding Fantasy Name. In short, they end up as Gilgamesh: great heroes, far above the common, mortal men, who just do not know how to rule. Where do they go from here?

This is the main trouble I have always had with the end game. How do you keep the players interested in playing their mighty demi-gods without being bored out of their minds? Personally, I plan on taking a leaf out of the four thousand or so year old Mesopotamian's book, and shoving the mortality of their characters into the players' faces. The gods don't care that you've destroyed Zot the Archwarlock, you're still going to die, and your subjects? They'll remember you as the violent hero who just couldn't cut it as a king. Threaten the kingdom with more than just invaders, challenge them to do something great for their kingdom, for all humanity even. Tempt them with the immortality, either true immortality or the immortality of being a Good King.

At least, that's all I can think of the subject. Has anyone else an inkling on how else to run these end games?

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Someone just commented on my post on arms and armour in Mesopotamia, saying how they had used it for extra research for a school project, which made me realise how much role playing has influenced my life, and, I think I would be justified in saying, all of our lives.

Role playing really started my love for history, researching into various periods to add an extra level of detail to my role playing, before it became an interest of its own. Before long, I had taken to history just because I loved it, and started to learn both Akkaddian and Koine Greek as extensions of my interest.

Because of this little bit of research I once did for Dungeons & Dragons, I studied several units of history, and am looking to get a B. A., probably majoring in history. Because of this one thing, I got far more involved in literature, reading the ancient epics. I am not ashamed to say that I only read Spenser's The Fairie Queene because of Scott's blog (the current one's name escapes me at this moment), and his mention of it as canon for his campaign setting.

It was, quite simply, mainly from the Fairie Queene that I took to reading more poetry, above the little I was forced to read for schoolwork, and actually found myself loving the literature.

In short, role playing games formed me. They shaped me into the man I am today. Where will they lead me? I don't know, but that is life. This, I believe, could be said of all of us.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

First off, I must apologise for the lack of posts, and also mention that they are highly unlikely to pick up anytime soon, due to uni work and other stuff happening in my life, so sorry about that. I'll try to post something, but it probably won't happen...

Also: James Hutchings. Don't know if you remember him, but he's the guy behind Age of Fable, Teleleli, as well as the author of The New Death and Other Stories. Well, he's writing an online serial, which is pulp superhero detective. It's called 'The Case of the Syphiliptic Sister', and you can read the first chapter online here.

It seems quite interesting, as well as fairy amusing, and I am definitely looking forward to the other chapters of his novel!

Friday, June 22, 2012

Or, why I feel sorry for our gm.
So, we're playing WFRP, and had just started the Shadows Over Bogenhafen, and had the whole bit with the secret temple. Our plan? Buy/steal as much gunpowder as possible, and then blow up the temple as we ride away...